Never
by Corpse in a Coffin
Summary: It's a beautiful Sunday in 1975, and James seems to be seeing Lily Evans for the first time. . . .


A/N: 'Ello, mortals! I'm afraid it's been a bit longer than I'd like to admit since I've last written anything, so I'm afraid that this isn't quite what I'd like for it to be . . . but ah well. It could be worse!

It was written for the Challenge and Competition for Hard-Core Marauder Fans, using the prompt "write about the moment James first seen Lily in a romantic light."

Disclaimer: I don't own _Harry Potter_.

XXX

James Potter never thought he would live to see the day where he thought girls weren't strange entities from the other side of Hell, but it eventually happened. He couldn't pin-point the exact date that it did. Perhaps it was that time when he had a particularly embarrassing dream about some faceless girl who didn't exist in reality, or maybe it all started when he caught himself staring at Melinda Mulsworthy of Hufflepuff two years above him - no matter _how_ everything came to place, however, he just had to accept that it did.

He wasn't entirely confident that he liked thinking about birds, but he wasn't alone; Peter blushed even more around Mary Macdonald than he ever had before, Remus suddenly found himself unable to speak properly around some Ravenclaw girl (James couldn't remember her name for the life of him), and Sirius had taken to practicing his new moves out.

"For the ladies," he said haughtily one night when James asked him, staring at his reflection in the mirror and trying to see something beyond his reflection "It's all for the ladies, James. . . ."

James didn't bother to inquire any further.

Still, he refused to allow _girls_ to rule his life. He had heard horror stories of young boys growing into rambunctious adolescents, and suddenly their whole lives changed because they started noticing women. James made a point about carrying on as he always had, despite his new-found illness. Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday he could be found out in the Quidditch Pitch with his Silver Arrow and the rest of his teammates. In the days that he had Transfiguration, he always succeeded in being the very first to complete their assignments (assuming that said assignments were practical and not anything that had to be written out). Furthermore, he continued, quite often, to eat as much as he damn well pleased in the Great Hall, no matter how many faces of disgust that Diane girl made.

_Girls wouldn't be so bad_, he thought ruefully, _if I hadn't sworn them off when I was 'bout one._

It was a Saturday that James first noticed Lily Evans.

_Not_ that he hadn't ever payed attention to her before. It had been impossible _not _to, what with her breathing down his and his friends' backs every chance she could, yelling at him, being friends with Snivellus ("fraternizing with the enemy," as Sirius called it) . . . no, he had known who Lily Evans was since the first day he had come to Hogwarts. It was simply that he had never noticed her quite like this.

It had happened when he and the other Marauders were lounging outside one sunny Sunday afternoon. He couldn't remember what they were talking about (though he was sure it either had to do with Quidditch, Professor Flitwick, or Snivellus), but he had stopped mid-sentence. At first he wasn't even sure _what_ had stopped him, but then he realized that it was Lily.

She was beautiful, with pale skin that made her vibrant red hair and the freckles that dotted her face and arms stand out. Her green, almond-shaped eyes were mesmerizing, and, at some point (though he _really_ didn't know when), she had developed breasts. Really, how had he never noticed before?

Without knowing what he was doing or giving any of his surroundings a bit of thought, he jumped up ("Hey, what're you doing?" yelped Sirius) and began jogging to where Lily was accompanied by two other people James couldn't be bothered to pay attention to.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Hey! Evans!"

Lily stopped what she was doing and turned in his direction. James could see the curiosity and apprehension brewing in her eyes.

"Evans," he panted as he finally stopped. He was only a few feet apart from her now. "Evans, will you go out with me?"

Within just a few moments her expression morphed from mild curiosity to utter revulsion. _"Never in a hundred thousand _years_, Potter!"_

He smiled in spite of her stinging words. Perhaps there was _one _girl he wouldn't mind having his life ruled by.


End file.
